Layover Concerns, please help!

Sorry, I tried to copy and paste let me clean up my post.

I fly from DFW to Philadelphia and have a 1 hour 17 minute layover until our flight to Munich.

Munich we have a 2 1/2 hour layover until we catch a plane to Venice.

The big concern was the flight back when we get to Philly and we only have 1 1/2 hours to catch our flight back to DFW. That seems pretty short to clear customs and catch our last flight. What would happen if our flight was late from DFW to Philly to start and we missed our plane to Munich? Would we just be in a world of trouble the rest of the time?

Don't worry you have lots of time in Munich. We went through in November just ask when you get off the plane to direct you to your gate. They keep the flights together on purpose. When you check in they should be giving you all the boarding passes for all your flights, they should give you the gate numbers, but if not ask or check the monitors.

I figured Munich we would be okay, like I said the layover when we get back doesn't seem possible but I am sure it is. Still looking for cheap tickets to Venice for Spring Break, not having a lot of luck yet.

In Munich you'll have to go through passport control, But 2:20 should be enough time.

If you miss the flight to Munich, they will try to get you on another flight or reroute you.

On the return, ninety minutes in Philadelphia might be tight especially if your flight is late. But again, if it's not your fault, the airline will put you on the next available flight.

Hi Gary,

Just for some info:

A few years ago, due to a delay on the first of our 3 flights from Munich to Frankfurt to Toronto to Newark, NJ, we missed our last flight, from Toronto to Newark. There was no other Air Canada flights that night going to Newark so they put us on the next Continental flight home.

Paul

Don't worry too much about Philadelphia. It has never taken me more than a few minutes to go through customs and immigration there. Even if your arrival flight is late, departure flights are almost ALWAYS delayed from Philadelphia.

Have you looked at American, Delta, KLM and British Airways? All offer one stop connections from DFW to VCE.

Based on your itinerary I would worry more about your 1 hr connection in Frankfurt especially if you are on a smaller plane that is parked away from the terminal and you need to be bussed into the terminal.

If your inbound aircraft is on time then you will be ok - but have a backup plan in case flight gets delayed or you get a far away parking spot.

I tend not to worry too much about connections, while trusting, I have found the following to be true:

The airline is responsible for your transit, if you miss a flight, they get you on the next one, even if it is a competing airline.

If a flight is coming in late, they prep to get you to connecting flights in minimum time. I have been pulled out while disembarking at CDG and escorted through passport control and onto my waiting flight, had planes held to accept late connections.

To be honest, nearly all of my European bound flights arrive early.

Its easy to say the airline is responsible to get you to your destination - the problem is it could be 8 hours later or the next day depending on the availability of seats. It happened 2 years ago when our UA flight got into FRA late and we got a remote parking - had to run across the terminal only to get to our connection to find the gate already closed. We got rerouted but ended up at our destination (Dubrovnik) about 8 hours later - not fun when you have kids and have just done an overnight flight.

Overall, there are lots of things we can't control - I'm just suggesting you know what your possible alternate routes are should you miss a connection.

Personally I'd not select the short layover from Philly to Munich. It takes at least 15 minutes from the time the plane touches down (the arrival time) until you're actually off the plane, now you got to get to another gate and on an airplane. Usually it works, but what you have to ask yourself is whether you're willing to pay the penalty if it doesn't. Which means that the start of your vacation may be delayed from hours to a day or more until they put you on another flight out. As you've probably noticed, planes fly pretty full the past few years. The days of being able to put 15 passengers on another flight are gone. All it takes is a storm somewhere or a minor equipment problem that delays your incoming flight by 45 minutes and you're not going to make the connection. It's up to you whether you want to run that risk, of course.

I'd be much less worried about connections once in Europe, at least on your trip from here to Venice. Far more flights within Europe than across the Atlantic.

Hello Gary. I am not sure anyone on here directly answered your question(s), and if they did, it was their opinion and not true facts. Here are the facts so that you can make an educated guess as to if this is something you feel you need to do. 1st: The historical ontime performance of your flight from DFW to PHL is abount 78%; http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightRating/flightRatingByRoute.do. 2nd: There is a 50/50 chance [this chance can lessen if you look at this for more days] that your flight will either arrive in terminal A or C at PHL [this is determined about 2 days out: you can go to PHL’s website, or USair’s website the day before to see the terminal arrival]. 3rd: Your flight to Münichen will depart from Terminal A [see wikipedia’s entry on PHL]. Now that you have gathered this information, you can go to PHL’s website: http://www.phl.org and look at the terminal maps and verify if indeed you have enough time to the +1 hour connection in PHL. You can use this same system to verify the rest of your flights. I hope this works out for you!

Thanks!

In 2007, I flow from PHL to MUC on USAir. Philly is the worst airport in the world (or at least US and Europe), second worst is Newark, and USAir is the worst airline flying to Europe.

DFW has some of the longer lines at immigrations I have ever been in. Not sure if the other cities you are passing through are as bad.

I will take Philly airport over Miami.

A couple of years ago I would have said the worst airport is Kansas City when each gate has their own security setup. Go to the bathroom, make a call or get food you had to take your boarding pass and start over coming through security. A connecting flight required you to exit security and re-enter through security.

Edwin